Trying to bring a community together.

Hello everyone!

Not sure if you know but I am Portuguese. Portugal is a small country which has been deeply affected by the recent economic crisis to an excent IMF has to interveen for a while. We are now supposed to be recovering and people are struggling a lot, that includes everyone. Salaries are low and at the same time despite food still being somewhat affordable things like electricity and gasoline etc are super expensive. I think in terms of gas we have some of the most expensive prices in Europe? Something like that. 

On the other hand despite it all tourism is blooming and the country still has many monuments back from when we were big in Europe (discovery age and whatnot) and the food is super rich and diversified. Alcool is affordable and we have amazing wine. Because we needed EU help in pretty much everything our transportation services, airports, some concert halls, football stadiums etc are somewhat new and modernized. Because of the crisis people had to try to survive in other fields and have opened new and exciting restaurants, cafes, shops a bit around (at least my town) even though there are still a lot of stores closing and empty.

We have a gigantic amount of music festivals all year but mostly in the summer and they always sell out despite the expensive (for a portuguese citizen) tickets. I always find that amusing. I make more than min wage and cannot afford them the way people go to them at least. The average music festival attendee goes to more than one and usually buys the most complete ticket version.

Fashion is also blooming here with interesting new designers and people apparently caring more about what they are wearing. Its nice to go out and see everyone bringing what it is for them, their a game. But despite all of this and despite lolita numbers growing in the world and all the events and all the buzz around lolita everywhere in Europe and despite the efforts, in Portugal, lolita is close to dead. Numbers do not increase (people leave and then sometimes someone new comes around) but the level of committment and support surrounding a community and events has fallen. I suppose we can't blame ourselfs for that, society is changing but it seems like other countries have managed to obtain some number growth so this is disappointing. After being here and in the fashion for 10 years or more I cannot help but feel a sense of ... failure while at the same time I am fully aware that there is little I could have done/can do more than what I did and still do (not as much I am not afraid to admit). 

So how does all this rambling fit with the post itself? Well as an effort to cater for the community we do have and knowing some people are not able to move to attend meetings (because traveling for an event is not something we do here, trust me, even tried that "give away free stuff" technique and it still did not work) I decided to arrange for an online national meeting on the 18th of July.

People seemed excited and we got a wooping! 17 participants enrolled. Wow, imagine that, 17 people. I bet you feel excited for me heh? 

The problem was that on the date apparently only around 5 people remembered to attend and those 5 experienced some kind of tecnical difficulties with tinychat which is unfortunately the only platform I know that is free and enables multiple people chatting with a mic and camera at the same time. Out of all those 5 people I am not sure how many were wearing lolita. So it was a bit of a fiasco which is sad. 

Well I did feel pretty which is good considering I've been very sick which is something I will not bother you with in detail. 

I was inspired by Carmilla's style I think. One gets inspiration from what we have in our memory bank without realizing. I went to a local store the other day when I was still healthy and I saw this floral crown I've been in love with for a while. But now it was on sale so I finally got it. It is the hugest flower accessory I have ever worn and i think that's what reminded me of her. Also I got that underskirt as you know and I was dying to use it and Carmilla's dresses are sometimes on the longer side so that sealed the deal. 

 Anyway this is also not new because I have posted about Paris but I am really proud of the way it ended up looking so here it is in a bit more detailed. It took a couple of hours to make because its all hand sewn and I used things I had in my crafts box which was great! I really like it but it matches almost nothing else. Its a bit like that pierrot hat i made for the Lver btssb outfit too. There's something about Paris that just makes me wanna go crafty.

Anyway I hope this post doesn't get misunderstood because this is my personal diary and I do want to be honest but I do not want to be too negative or anything, I always see myself as someone who is just honestly speaking her mind and usually very strongly based on reality other than my opinion.
It can be seen as a positive thing too, at least when you hit rock bottom there's a place to... improve? Maybe now the local community will reflect with what's been going on lately and for a bit and move? I don't know, I hope so. Not sure if any of the people involved read or even care but ya know. One does what one can.

I really hope I can be well again soon, I honestly do not know what is wrong with me so I cannot give this health situation a name yet but i'll carry on with the testing and visits to doctors to see what is going on. I hope I don't have to go to the emergency again though, I hate going to the doctor to be honest, I feel very helpless there even when i'm being discharged.

I hope you are all well, I really do.
Love always,
Jo